That night Lyra come back to Aurora room with pack of cards.

"Miss," she said as she entered the room, "your cards have arrived."

"Oh, finally," Aurora said as she set aside the book she was reading. "Let me see them."

As she examined the deck, the first card she laid her eyes on was the Joker. The quality was decent, but Aurora wasn't particularly fond of the illustration. Nevertheless, the most important thing was that the deck was complete, with the right number of cards and symbols she had requested.

These were made by Nicolas' friend, the tarot card maker.

"What are you going to do with it?" Lyra asked, looking at the deck of cards.

"Play with it," Aurora replied with a smile.

"How?"

"I'll teach you later. But first, I have a promise to keep," she said as she got off the bed. "Oh, I should return these books I've finished reading too."

"Allow me to carry those for you, miss," Lyra offered as she stepped closer to her master.

"It's fine," Aurora said, hugging the three thick books with one arm. "Why don't you rest first? I won't be gone for long."

"Okay, miss," Lyra said as she watched Aurora leave the room with books and cards in hand.

Aurora made her way to the magic academy library, her usual destination. The door proved to be a bit of a challenge to open with her hands full, but after some maneuvering, she finally succeeded.

The sound of the door opening caught the attention of a big girl who carefully peered out from behind a bookshelf. Upon realizing it was Aurora, she quickly approached her.

"Let me help you with that," the big girl, Sera, offered as she took the books from Aurora.

"Thanks," Aurora said, smiling gratefully.

Aurora followed Sera as she walked towards the bookshelf. With a quick glance at the books, Sera made sure she was putting them back in the correct place.

They then made their way to a table around the corner. The candle on top of the table cast a warm, flickering light as they sat down.

Aurora bring up her cards.

"Alright, so this is the result of what we discussed last time," Aurora said as she pulled out her deck of cards.

Sera didn't looked too happy. "Gambling?"

"No, no, it's just a card game," Aurora smiled, shuffling the deck. "I'm going to teach you how to play Old Maid."

Aurora then proceeded to explain the rules to Sera, carefully guiding her through each step.

"Got it?" Aurora asked, once she was finished. "Let's give it a try!"

"W-wait, let me review the rule once again, Sera said nervously.

" Don't worry," Aurora reassured her. "It's easier to understand by playing."

Sera protested but Aurora ignore her and start distributed the card. There's a hiccups few times at the beginning, but Sera soon got the hang of it and ended up winning the game.

"See? It wasn't that hard, was it?" Aurora said with a smile.

"Ca-can we play again?" Sera asked, looking excited. Enjoying the thrill of victory.

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They played a few more rounds, and then Sera noticed a bracelet on Aurora's right hand. She was so focused on the game that she had missed such a noticeable detail.

Ah, this? Aurora noticed "Oh, this?" Aurora noticed Sera's gaze on her bracelet. "Ruby gave it to me when we went to town. Isn't it pretty?"

"You two seem pretty close," Sera said with a hint of sadness in her voice.

"Yeah, she's my first friend here after all," Aurora replied, completely unaware of Sera's feelings.

"That's... that's great," Sera said, not sounding like she thought it was great. Her words were followed by an awkward silence.

Sera mustered up her courage and said, "Aurora."

"Yes...?" Aurora replied, looking confused.

"I would find something for you too," Sera said.

"Eh? No, you don't need to do that," Aurora replied.

"But you gave me that precious book. Isn't it good manners to return the favor?" Sera said, trying to convince her friend.

"No, don't worry about it," Aurora replied. "I'm happy you like it, but there's no need to pay me back."

"But you accepted a gift from Ruby!" Sera said, raising her voice.

Aurora was a little surprised by Sera's agitation. "Yes, but--"

Sera cut her off. "Do you mean... you don't want a gift from me?"

"Of course not!" Aurora quickly rejected that idea. "It's just..."

"Just what?" Sera asked, her voice tinged with pain. "If Ruby can, why can't I? Don't... don't tell me you don't even consider me as your friend?"

"That's not true!" Aurora protested with a hint of frustration in her voice.

Aurora sighed. She didn't want to hurt Sera's feelings, but she also don't want to make it sound like she only doing this for profit.

"Fine," Aurora finally said, "just do what you want. Can we continue our game now?"

Sera smiled. "Yes!"

A few hours had passed as they continued playing, much longer than Aurora had expected. Sera kept asking to play one more round.

"Looks like this card game was a great idea, huh?" Aurora teased. "It's a lot more fun than you thought, isn't it?"

Sera tried to hide her embarrassment. "Uh, yeah. A little bit."

Aurora laughed. "And it'll be even more fun with more people. How about next time I invite Ruby to join us?"

"Oh." Sera couldn't hide her disappointment.

"Come on, she's actually a nice person," Aurora said. "You don't have to treat her like an enemy."

"But she is an enemy," Sera muttered.

"What?"

"I said, I prefer it if it's just the two of us playing," Sera said.

"Okay, if that's what you want. I won't make you do something you're not comfortable with," Aurora said, gathering her cards. "Anyway I need to go now. I've been out longer than I planned and my maid is waiting for me."

As Aurora was about to leave, Sera reflexively grabbed onto her clothing.

Aurora turned around. "Is something wrong?"

Sera swallowed hard.

Could you stay a bit longer?

Sera couldn't bring herself to say the words she wanted to. Instead, she mumbled, "Goodnight."

"Okay," Aurora replied with a smile. "Goodnight."

***

Aurora felt sick as she opened her eyes. Her maid, Lyra, was angry because she was late to come back to her room last night. Aurora tried to reason with her using cards, saying that if she started playing, she would forget about time too.

Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened. She was forced to keep playing until the early hours of the morning, leaving her with only a few hours of sleep and feeling terrible.

"I'm sorry, miss," Lyra said as she helped Aurora change into her academy uniform.

"It's fine," Aurora said, but the headache is killing her. All she can do is gently rubbing her temples to soothe her headache.

"Can't your magic do anything about it, miss?" Lyra asked.

Aurora glanced at her maid, who appeared just as energetic as usual. Despite not getting much sleep the previous night, she still radiated vitality.

It wasn't fair, she thought, considering it was Lyra who caused her headache and lack of sleep.

"I've tried it," Aurora said with a shrug. "It didn't work. I'm not sure why. Maybe my magic only works for things like poison or maybe my mastery is still lacking. I don't know."

"I see," Lyra said. "I always thought light magic could cure everything."

Probably that's how it is, Aurora thought. The game makes light magic super rare, so there must be a reason. There must be something special about it. After all, her special form, LightSpeed, is just a cheat form, not necessarily a special attribute of light magic. She might be missing something.

"Anyway, miss," Lyra said as she combed Aurora's hair. "What about your cards? Are you not going to sell them? I'm sure everyone will want to play with them."

"Hm..." Aurora pondered. She had originally created the cards just to pass the time, but this idea was worth considering. The monopoly on Kroma herb was also set to end soon with the new crops blooming, and having a new item to monopolize could be beneficial.

"Good idea," Aurora said. "Can you go to Nicholas's office later and explain it to him? Show him how to play, I'm sure he'll understand the value once he gets hooked."

"Understood, miss," Lyra replied.

"Well, even if he doesn't want to, I'll make him do it," Aurora said with a smile.

"You're so evil, miss," Lyra replied with a grin.

For some reason, Lyra looked excited. Aurora feels like the cards and her idea being approved didn't seem to be the source of her excitement. Was it because she would get to meet Nicholas? Aurora was sure she saw a slight blush on her maid's face.

Aurora isn't sure how she's supposed to deal with it. Nicholas is one of two secret capture targets, but she's not interested in building a relationship outside of business with him. So, it's not like she wouldn't approve of their relationship. But that's assuming her feelings are returned. She doubted Lyra had the skill to capture a target.

Should she lend a hand? Aurora pondered.

Aurora shook her head. No, getting involved in other people's love stories can be problematic. Unless it's obvious that Lyra needs help, she should just let her do things herself. At best, she can give them a chance to meet.

Thinking about it, Aurora feeling a little embarrassed. Why did she act like she was an expert on romance? Sure, she understood how romance worked in dating sims games, but she had no real-life experience.

As she finished changing and began walking to her classroom, her headache mostly subsided, but she still didn't feel great.

"Are you okay?" Ruby asked.

Aurora was a little surprised that she hadn't noticed the small girl with twintails already walking beside her.

"Yes, just a little headache," Aurora said, trying to smile. "And I'm a little tired, I guess."

"Lack of sleep?" Ruby asked. "Don't tell me you spent your night with that girl in the library again?"

"What? Oh, you mean Sera?"

"I don't care what her name is," Ruby said, looking unhappy. "Why do you spend so much time with her anyway?"

"Uh, because we're friends? And we have similar interests in books, I guess?"

"Whatever," Ruby said, walking faster.

"Hey, wait Ruby! What are you angry about?"

But Ruby didn't wait. She failed to make Ruby talk to her and the class began.

"Before we start the class," the teacher said, "I have some bad news."

All eyes looked at him. That's when Aurora noticed that Nova was absent from class.

"Last night," the teacher began, "the knights of our kingdom fought with a group of rebels calling themselves the Black Knights. At that fight, our knights won, but at a great cost. The Knight Captain passed away in that fight."

Aurora gulped. Did the Knight Captain get killed?

"Many of you might be familiar with his son, Finnick Hunter, who is in his second year," the teacher continued. "Since this shocking news reached his ears, he has vanished without a trace. If any of you have any clues as to his whereabouts, please let us know."

***